Common Core ELAGrades 9–10Reading: Informational

RI.9-10.5: How Sections Develop and Refine a Claim

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.5 · Cluster: Craft and Structure.

The Official Wording

Analyze in detail how an author's ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).

Common Core State Standards, Grades 9-10, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.9-10.5 Means in Plain English

Ninth and tenth graders show how particular sentences and paragraphs build an author’s claim and then sharpen it. In a history of the ozone treaty, two paragraphs support the praise in the opening line, and the last two qualify it, so the claim ends more careful than it began.

Eighth grade (RI.8.5) studied the structure of a single paragraph and the sentences inside it. Ninth and tenth grade widen the lens to sections and chapters. Eleventh and twelfth grade (RI.11-12.5) judge whether an author’s structure makes the points clear, convincing and engaging.

RI.9-10.5 I Can Statements

I can name the job a paragraph does for a claim.
I can find the sentence where a text turns or qualifies.
I can explain how a claim changes from beginning to end.

RI.9-10.5 Worked Example

The passage opens with high praise and then qualifies it twice, and the weak answer files the qualifications under more facts.

Read the Story

The Montreal Protocol is often called the most successful environmental treaty ever written. The claim rests on a fast reaction to an alarming discovery.In 1985, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey reported that ozone over Antarctica was thinning sharply each spring. Ozone high in the atmosphere screens out ultraviolet light that causes skin cancer, and the likely culprits were chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, chemicals then common in refrigerators, air conditioners and spray cans.Two years later, in 1987, nations signed the protocol to phase out CFCs. In 2009 it became the first treaty ratified by every member of the United Nations.Success, though, has been slow. CFCs linger in the atmosphere for decades, so the hole still opens every spring, and scientists do not expect it to heal fully over Antarctica until about 2066.The cure also carried a side effect. Some of the chemicals that replaced CFCs, called HFCs, spare the ozone but trap heat, and in 2016 nations amended the treaty to phase them down as well.

A short passage written for this page.

Question: How do the last two paragraphs develop and refine the claim in the first sentence? Explain the job each paragraph does.

Not Yet“The passage is about the ozone hole. Paragraph 2 explains the problem, paragraph 3 explains the treaty, and paragraphs 4 and 5 give more facts about it.”It labels topics, not jobs, and calls the last two paragraphs “more facts,” missing that they qualify the opening claim: the treaty worked, but slowly and with a side effect that needed its own fix.

Meets the Standard“The first sentence makes a big claim, and the next two paragraphs support it with speed and reach: a discovery in 1985, a treaty ‘Two years later,’ and approval by every member of the United Nations. Then ‘Success, though, has been slow’ turns the passage. The word ‘though’ signals a limit: the hole still opens each spring and will not heal until about 2066. The last paragraph qualifies the claim again by calling the replacement chemicals ‘a side effect’ that needed its own amendment. By the end, ‘most successful’ means it worked, but slowly and only after a correction, a more careful claim than the one the passage began with.”It names the job each paragraph does, points to the sentences and transition words that turn the passage, and states how the claim at the end differs from the claim at the start.

Question Stems to Use

What claim does the first paragraph make? Write it in your words.Which paragraphs support the claim, and which ones limit it?What word or sentence turns the passage? What changes after it?How is the claim at the end different from the claim at the start?What would the passage claim if the last paragraph were cut?

Common Mistakes with RI.9-10.5

Labeling paragraphs by topic

“Paragraph 3 is about the treaty.”

Try this: Have students describe each paragraph with a verb naming its job, such as claims, supports, limits or corrects, not with its topic.

Missing the turn

Reading “Success, though, has been slow” as one more piece of praise

Try this: Circle every transition like though, but and also, then ask what each one does to the claim that came before it.

Restating the opening claim as the conclusion

“The passage proves it was the most successful treaty ever.”

Try this: Ask students to rewrite the opening claim as the passage leaves it, then compare the two versions word by word.

Where RI.9-10.5 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.8.5Analyze the structure of one paragraph, including the role of particular sentences in refining a key concept.

AlongsideRH.9-10.5Analyze how a history text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation.RST.9-10.5Analyze how the concepts and key terms in a science text relate to one another.

Comes NextRI.11-12.5Evaluate whether an author’s structure makes the points clear, convincing and engaging.

Practice RI.9-10.5

Quick Check

What claim does the first sentence make?
That the Montreal Protocol is the most successful environmental treaty ever written.
Which sentence first limits that claim, and how?
“Success, though, has been slow.” It points out that CFCs linger for decades and the hole will not heal over Antarctica until about 2066.
What does the last paragraph add to the claim?
That the treaty’s fix caused a new problem: replacement chemicals that trap heat, which needed a 2016 amendment to phase them down.

RI.9-10.5: Other Names

RI.9-10.5CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.5